Even though the silence of voters has been intriguing both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main Opposition Congress ahead of polling day in Madhya Pradesh, the inability to gauge the inclination of young electorate has been the most challenging.
Young voters are set to play a key role in the Assembly polls in the State where the din and bustle of over two-week long hectic campaigning came to an end on Saturday evening.
A total of 4,66,31,759 strong electorate including 2,20,62,354 women will exercise their franchise at 53,946 polling stations to choose from among 2,583 contestants trying their luck at the hustings.
Of them, the number of voters aged between 18-29 years is about 1.65 crore. These include nearly 23.99 lakh in the age group 18-19 years and about 1.41 crore aged between 20-29 years. About 50 lakh voters will cast votes for the first time on November 25.
In 2008, the total number of voters was 3, 62, 66, 969. However, only 2, 52, 23, 101 that is 69.63 per cent valid votes were polled.
However, the BJP received merely 94, 93, 641 valid votes, which was 37.64 per cent of the valid votes. On the other hand, the Congress bagged 81, 70, 318 votes, which was 32.39 per cent of the valid votes.
This implies that the difference between the two parties in terms of valid votes was merely 13, 23, 323 votes.
Significantly, the total number of young voters is more than the valid votes polled by the winning party in the previous elections. Similarly, the number of new voters is almost half of the valid votes polled by winning party.
Undoubtedly, the number of young electorate has caused great consternation among both the parties who have made every effort to woo them.